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Monthly Archives: January 2013

So I promised a tutorial of some sorts about lining the cowl neck dress 118 from Burdastyle’s October 2012 issue. If you were expecting a full on tutorial, you’re probably going to be disappointed. In my post describing the dress I described what I did with a list, a bit like this one (I tried to improve the original a bit):

Sew side seams from bottom of fashion fabric all the way along the sleeves to the bottom of the lining

Now’s a good time to do fitting adjustements if you haven’t made a muslin (though, tsk, you totally should! (However, I only did a body muslin to see if the size and bodice length was right, not to do tailoring))

Finish the hem as you prefer. (You could leave the lining free hanging to avoid hand sewing.)

So here I’m just going to present some of the more confusing points: points 6 to 8. The reasoning behind this being that a full on tutorial would get to sewalong proportion, and that most of the info can be found elsewhere (I linked to it where possible).

One exception, though, here’s a picture of how to cut the front lining piece:

Front Lining Piece – cut at the red line

Fold over the pattern piece and draw a line where the edge meets the body (red in picture). From there downwards is the lining pattern for the front. Attach the lining at that line to the fashion fabric.

Follow the steps on the list. Up to step 6. Here’s how the pieces should look like after step 5 (inside view):

In the following pictures I tried to always have the back pieces on the left and the front pieces on the right to make it easier to see what is where.

So after sewing the shoulder seams start pinning the sleeves in the flat (I go the idea from one of Tasia’s Renfrew tutorials). First pin at the shoulder notch/shoulder seam:

Aligning Sleeve Shoulder Notch With Shoulder Seam

Then align the edges and remaining notches, pinning both lining and fashion fabric sleeves:

Carefully Pinned Sleeves

Sew each section seperately, starting at the shoulder seam. Here’s how it should look like after all the sections are sewn:

Sewn Sleeve Cap Sections

See how the seams don’t quite meet? That’s to avoid snatching at the fabric on the other side of the shoulder seam. In my fabric it didn’t show, so I didn’t mind the gap. You might want to close it completely, though.

Next sew the sleeve lining an fashion fabric together at the hem, right sides facing:

Sew Sleeves at Lower Edge – Here in orange thread

So far, so easy. Now the whole thing should be turned, so that the side seams can be sewn. Here’s step one:

Sleeves Turned Right sides out – Wrong sides facing each other

Now fold the right hand (front) lining piece to the left, aligning the side and underarm seams and pin (just the lining). Pull the left hand (back) fashion fabric piece from under the lining to the right, align the side and underarm seams and pin. Here’s how it should look like when layed flat. I hope it’s visible enough in this picture:

Pinned on The Upper Edge – a.k.a. side and underarm seams

Here the lining is on the left, the fashion fabric is on the right. These are the front pieces facing up. Sew along the upper edge, from one hem to the other, along the side and underarm seams.

Next turn the fashion fabric so the right side is out. When you turn the sleeve, the lining will be pulled inside the sleeve nice and neat. Here are some pictures of that:

Inside View After Turning – Front piece in the top of the picture, back lining below

Outside View After Turning – Back ready for inserting zipper

Sleeve Hem – Hand sewing free

From here on just insert the zipper and hem the dress and you’re done.

I hope this is helpfull. It’s my first attempt at something like this, so please let me know where it’s difficult to understand and I’ll try and explain/fix it.

To be honest, it’s good to be back in Finland. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time! Especially being at my Mamma’s place was really nice, (particularly the every day brunch sessions with my family were so, so awesome!) Also, in the first two weeks the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. We felt quite sweaty when we arrived in Switzerland (no wonder, it was a temperature difference of 20°C). For the next 2 weeks the sun was shining almost every day from 9 am to 4.30 pm and the temperatures (starting at 17°C) very slowly dropped to around 0. PB and I woke up the first day and we both though it was noon, when in fact it was onl 9.30! So we both took advantage of the weather and stayed outdoors as much as possible. PB went skiing with my “little” sister twice and I just lay on the terrasse soaking up the light. So I hope our vitamin D is stocked up.

Going For a Walk – this is in front ouf our house in Switzerland

We had rather funny Christmases at both my Papi’s and Mamma’s places with one Granddad each evening. New Years’ Eve was also fun, spent with my sister’s friends (PB enjoyed being the only guy immensely!). On the 2nd of January I introduced him to a local custom, the “Harder-Potschete”, where the old year’s demons are chased away with scary masked people (the “Potsche”) and a lot of noise:

The Potsche – I used to be so scared of them when I was a kid!

Trychler – That’s where most of the noise comes from

I also got to be Queen for a day, thanks to this custom:

King cake – determines who gets to reign for 1 day

And I met quite a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while (even before leaving Switzerland). The last week of our three week holidays we were home alone, my sister’s gone to Norway for an exchange semester, my brother went to Merano for a week, and my Mamma had to work. So PB and I just relaxed, fixed some issues with the really crappy bank (CS…), and cooked.

One night I started to feel ill and wanted to cook something warm and comforting, but not too elaborate. So I came up with a simple, but still very spicy carrot soup. Sorry for the crappy picture, it was just too delicious to make a long photo session:

Preparation
Shortly sauté (what a fancy word!) the onion, ginger and carrots in the fat. Add the curry powder and continue until it smells nice and spicy. Add the liquid ingredients, bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, until carrots are soft. Blend with a stick blender or food processor (careful, it’s hot!), add the cream if desired. Serve with bread.

Why is it good to be back? Well, our little nest has become our home now, and it’s always nice to be home.

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Lazylinchen

I'm an ex-librarian, English master, mum to two boys, and wive to a genius. I like to cook, sew, bake, knit, and DIY in general.
I mostly live in central Finland and am always happy to meet new people (online and off).
You can contact me at lazylinchen (at) gmail (dot) com